Why are badminton’s top names miserable about having to play the sport? | Badminton News

If they could, the Badminton World Federation would have found ways to attract larger sponsorships into the sport, given it is highly engaging and watchable and has a large fan base in populous Asia. For, every end of the year is a cruel reminder of how champion shuttlers earn only a fraction of tennis players. But since badminton simply hasn’t managed to bring in the monies, the global body could at least make life easier for its top players.The last two women’s singles Olympic champions and Viktor Axelsen, who won the title in the last two editions in Tokyo and Paris, have spoken out against the wrecking damage the sport’s unforgiving schedule has on their bodies and minds.
Chen Yufei had expressed after her Tokyo triumph the dire need she felt to step away from the sport, and how deep a toll it took on her mental health, not to mention the myriad knee, ankle, back, and wr niggles. An Se Young’s revelations on being treated like a machine and fielded in tournaments continuously while expecting the highest title-clinching results were damning for the sport. Her treatment at her training centre had been asmal, and the sport’s most elite names, at their peaks, just don’t seem to be enjoying unblemished joys and untainted glee, as the idea of success has gone sullen in badminton.
Flaring up of a left foot injury saw Axelsen having to submit medical documents to prove his pulling out from the World Tour Finals was legitimate if he didn’t want to invoke a fine. It is mandatory for top names to be present at BWF’s headlining events, or they invite financial penalties. And while it’s understandable why BWF would demand this – sponsors part with the money only if big names feature in tournaments making it a vicious cycle – the whole rigmarole has frankly done nothing to make badminton a better sport. The earnings are marginally higher, but athletes are deeply unhappy.

I have absolutely no need to “beef” with BWF, but I’m so tired of the disconnect between players and BWF.
Everything needs to go through the Federation, but I’m an individual athlete with my own team, making my own decisions!
Some players are happy to be in the federation.…
— Viktor Axelsen (@ViktorAxelsen) December 4, 2024
Beiwen Zhang, the independent American athlete who did well for many years to crowdfund a career that was consently Top 10, also had a mental breakdown recently. And in her post, she hinted at the toll all the travelling for the mandatory tournaments was taking on her, where finding a sparring partner while being from an unconventional shuttle nation caused her routine emotional aggravation.
But she couldn’t escape the hamster wheel of mandatory appearances at tournaments. Her tenacity and the fact of her being good enough at the sport to rank among the Top 10, had morphed into an ugly curse. She loved badminton but hated what it was doing to her.
The top men’s Chinese player some years ago found himself in such a funk that he raised his leg for cameras to focus on his footsole after a title final loss, to show the world a big, flat, bleeding bler he was playing with. He got banished for a year, returned quite mellowed down, and coaches have seemed to go easy on him thereafter not compelling him to play, while Chen Yufei was positively taken care of China and returned much happier, even if she didn’t win much.
But be it an entrenched, uncaring capitalic system of America, or the strict commun stranglehold structures of China, be it Malaysia or Denmark or Korea, the coaxing coercion of the playing schedule is driving shutters into very dark and sad corners.
Badminton – known for its intellectual immersion, intricate deceptions and beautiful games, is making its practitioners deeply unhappy. Just the incessant travelling can trigger teary breakdowns even in young newcomers to the Top 20 fold.
The cases are all different, needing not just troubleshooting but deeper solutions. Injuries, the loneliness of rehabs, the insecurities while being away from the circuit, just recalcitrant knees that refuse to heal quickly and give away at critical junctures, like for Carolina Marin at two Olympics, make it extremely painful for players.
It’s not unique to badminton. Football and tennis are both reeling from the gruelling schedules – packed matches to squeeze out the last ounce of talent from the athletes, and give them the illusion of making them lots of money in return. But if anyone takes a step back and views the scene, injuries and the attendant mental health struggles from inhuman schedules are killing the sport.
For years now, top players have pragmatically balanced their priorities of aiming at specific titles. A champion in the previous week, losing in the first round the very next Wednesday isn’t unheard of, though many naive fans frown upon this inconsency and outrage on social media – adding to the players’ grief.
On the whole, the entire caravan of top names moves from a Super 500 to Super 750 to Super 1000, given it’s mandated to, and performances get adjusted factoring in the injury paradox – pushing limits on the court while protecting aggravation of niggles. But it’s all farcical – to drag players through this pretence of participating, only for appearance’s sake, knowing they have to balance injuries with consency.
Maybe badminton needs just the 4 Slams like tennis, with a 64-player draw perhaps, and its annual World Championship, with bigger prize money. Or 6 at most, to actually ensure that the big titles aren’t won sheer elimination of injured, half-hearted, bone-bruised opponents. But even those can’t be mandatory if you want top names to truly contend – fit and reasonably happy. The next rung can have its own level of tournaments to gather points.
Forcing players to turn up just isn’t working for the sport. Making them pay fines for missing is making them miserable – given the prize money itself isn’t what tennis or golf or even those sitting-in-a-chair sloth disciplines like chess or e-sports, confer on their players. Shuttlers are relatively poor and overworked.
And yes, Viktor Axelsen should have the right to not play a tournament simply because he doesn’t feel like it. There is no medical practitioner, no doctor’s certificate in this world that can attest to an athlete feeling fit and knowing they are ready to take on the world.